Many of my friends are devoted to the
Democratic Party. They believe it's the only defense
against Republican rampage As one friend
says, "the Democratic Party is the party that makes good things happen."

They're proud that FDR enacted Social
Security and bank controls when the nation demanded relief .
Republicans could also boast, of national parks, trust busting, ending
slavery, lowering thevoting age to 18, starting EPA.

But today, there is no home on the
national ballot for whose who defend civil liberties and oppose export
of jobs, bank corruption, corporate control, war and militarism, racist
incarceration, union busting, environmental destruction, adulteration
of food, pollution of water and air. By real standards of
decency the Democratic Party is perhaps merely 25% less terrifying than
the Republican Party.

The Democratic Party was founded 1828 to
compromise with slavery (Jackson, VanBuren, Polk, Pierce,
Buchanan). It was pro-slavery even during the Civil War
(McClellan), then championed Jim Crow laws after Reconstruction (its
platform declined to repudiate the KKK in 1924).

Abandoning its early opposition to big
banks, it soon became the party of robber barons and urban bosses--
from Boss Tweed to Mayor Daley. This culminated with the
Federal Reserve Act, which shifted issuance of money from the public to
banks (Wilson). Its FHA required racist lending by banks
(FDR).

The Democratic Party's president led
America into World War One, perhaps the stupidest war in human history
(Wilson).

During World War Two its president
herded Japanese-Americans into camps (FDR). Its president
(HST) dropped the first atomic bombs.

Its president led the nation deep into
Vietnam (LBJ), killing two million there and 50,000 here.

Its president deregulated banks and
other sectors (Carter), prompting monopolies and bank failures.

Its president and DNC continued
Republican union-busting and lost millions of jobs overseas via NAFTA
(Clinton).

Its president vastly expanded the death
penalty, endorsed the disastrous "three strikes" penalty, and reduced
welfare to single mothers (Clinton).

Its presidents have approved bombing of
dozens of sovereign nations, from Mexico to Afghanistan, including nine
nations since WW2. Its president's embargo of Iraq killed 500,000
children (Clinton). His Secretary of State said this was
"worth it."

Its current president wages
aggressive war on nations that have not attacked us, a crime for which
Nazis were executed.

He abets AIPAC's apartheid policy.
Former Democratic House Speaker Pelosi said in 2009, "When it comes to
Israel, Republicans and Democrats speak with one voice."

Its current president's Cabinet picks
were endorsed by O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Kissinger and Glenn
Beck. Its current president appointed Monsanto executives to
lead USDA and FDA.

Its current president has asserted
executive power to nullify habeas corpus, the most sacred of our
protections from tyranny. He has expanded the Patriot Act,
the most anti-American legislation to date. Its current president
permits executions of Americans without trial, with drones.
He permits militarization of local police forces.

He stiff-arms advocates of universal
health coverage in order to protect insurance companies.

There is now absolutely no reason to
believe the campaign promises of a Democratic candidate for president
or governor.

The Party's failure to restore voting rights to
ex-felons-- a working class base of millions-- cost it the 2000 and
2004 elections.

Back
in Philadelphia, the Democratic Party has dominated
politics for eighty years. During the past 50 years City
Council has
presided over a declining bankrupt city. These incompetent
job
destroyers watched 400,000 high-paying industrial jobs rush abroad, to
be replaced with un-insured service work. Today, Center City
is a
happy-hour carnival surrounded by 80,000 hungry children, by 350,000
unemployed, 90,000 working poor, 250,000 uninsured, feeble health
clinics, shuttered schools, libraries and hospitals; 40,000
vacant
lots, 700 abandoned factories and warehouses; smouldering fire
departments, derailed transit, the nation's highest urban poverty rate,
overflowing prisons, accelerating evictions, and rivers clogged with
sewage.

If this decline were beyond Council's control we would not fault
them. But since all these problems have complete local
solutions, we may conclude that these Democrats are not competent.

Council's only trick is
trickle-down. Like all Councils preceding, this
Council serves principally whomever offers the most money, for taxes
and bribes ("donations"). While thousands suffer, politicos
push condos, conventions and casinos. Council especially
resists effective but less profitable technologies that reduce
dependence on centralized agencies. When real solutions
contradict Council's "prerogative" they are blocked.

Thanks to Council's lack of vision,
bureaucrats expect old rules to continue. Absentee landowners
ignore taxes. Banks squat on foreclosed properties.
Universities expect to raise tuitions. Insurers expect to
monopolize health care. Most laws protect the rich from the poor, not
the , poor from the rich.

Such corporate Democrats fail the Middle
Class, small businesses, and the traditionally poor.

Social progress has always originated
outside elite power centers, with insurgent voices and
parties. These are the "impractical" dreamers.
Obama himself has admitted standing on the shoulders of civil rights
rebels.

Yet the Party presumes to deserve
authority in this town. Somehow they expect us to believe
that their priorities are practical. But their laws are a
cage for Philadelphia to die in.

Therefore a Philly revolution has begun
that's deeper than Ben Franklin's. The Green Party demands a
city as beautiful as our children, as sustainable as a forest, and as
generous as a family dinner. It plans to employ all
Philadelphians to prepare this city to thrive with less fuel.
It aims to lower the costs of living by reducing dependence on costly
housing, heating, cooling, mobility and imported food. Greens
enable the public to create safety nets that release us from
treadmills. To do this, Greens shift control of land, law and
money to those most urgently needing it.

The next economy celebrates neither
bloodthirsty capitalism nor bleeding heart socialism. It
thrives through "mutual enterprise." This promotes businesses
and organizations that are dedicated to community and nature.

Because City Hall has not enough dollars
to hire hundreds of thousands more of us to rebuild this city, workers
will be paid partly with regional labor credits backed by skills and
tools, by tax credits, land credits, tuition credits, home purchase
credits,, food from regional farms, medical care, child care, transit,
recreation and entertainment. An ever-expanding regional
credit and barter network will meet our needs.

All such bold notions are proven
practical elsewhere. They replace proven failure with
adventure. The deeper the pit, the mightier leap to get out.

Glover is author
of Green Jobs Philly,
founder of 18 organizations and campaigns, former
professor of urban studies at Temple University.